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NORTHDOWNS BS November 2012 Bring & Buy
Best
wishes for Christmas and the New Year. |
NORTHDOWNS
BS October 20th “Members Show “ The Members Show was very well supported with the number of birds exhibited. Apologies were received from John Mullen and Richard & Julie Hutchins.
It was nice
to have the company of Geoff Dell and Jeff Plummer again, defending their title. They
might have missed out on a super lunch last year but they didn’t make the same
mistake this year! So ‘thank you’ to all who took the time to bring birds to the
show; it was good to see so many of you and with everybody helping it made it a very
enjoyable day for all. One new member signed up on the day – Derek Ham from Four Marks near Alton.
After being booked in, the birds were placed on the staging by all of our helpers under the guidance of our show manager, Brian Duncombe, who was assisted by John Gorrell (our President).
Our judges for the day were Gren & Pat Norris, who started by saying that Pat was going to judge the birds and Gren would give a commentary and answer any questions etc.
Once she had started judging Pat gave a very clear running evaluation, explaining the reasons for her choices. She and Gren also explained to the audience about faults on certain birds.
They both explained the problems with the birds that were just ‘that bit’ out of condition and also with some that had ticking on the crown, which was why they were penalised as a fault. That aside, the best bird won on the day. We thank Pat & Gren very much for their consideration to new members / beginners and for the way they explained the faults and positioning of birds.
We had a
full ploughman’s lunch, after which the judging of the major awards was completed,
which generated lots of interest. The Major
Awards were made as follows:
All in all
we had a very good day, with everyone helping at some stage, for which I would like to
thank you all again. Don’t
forget that the next meeting is the ‘Bring and Buy’, so please come, bring
plenty of birdie things and buy plenty, as it is our only fundraiser of the year. Our
President John Gorrell (his first year) is providing a buffet on the evening, so come and
enjoy yourselves. Thanks to our Chairperson Chris Angus Smith for providing all refreshments. |
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Unshowable / Flecked Bird Competition September 2012 The meeting started at 8.00pm and
everyone was welcomed by our Chairperson, Chris Angus-Smith. Apologies were received
from Sue Warrington, Clive Mayers, Jacky Fox and Julie & Richard Hutchins.
Chris Angus-Smith then said a bit
about our members show, which is on the 20th October, regarding the food and help that is
needed in kitchen etc. Delia Smith has offered to help as
show secretary on the day with Tony Cash. There were no winners or losers of
the ‘any unshowable / flecked bird competition’, which was overseen by me &
Nigel Darley. We discussed the merits and pitfalls of the birds in front of us if used in
a breeding program. Also, various members were asked what they would pair certain
birds to, which made very interesting comments from other members! The raffle was held during the
break and all were deep in conversation regarding their birds / breeding etc. Bio security was maintained during
the evening. |
Northdowns at Bucks & Berks Barbeque - August 2012 There was no meeting in August for the
Bucks & Berks, but a BBQ was held at Alex Whitman’s in Twyford and was attended
by (32) people.
During the afternoon most people drifted in & out of the bird room (as you do!), having a look at the birds and discussing all aspects of the hobby etc.
Luckily, the weather held out for us and it was a great afternoon enjoyed by all.
There was plenty of food, drink and ‘budgie’ talk and gossip.
John Bishop said a few words of thanks to Alex & Judy and his family, especially Paul his son the chef ably assisted by his good lady Sara who worked so hard to make it a success, and thanked them for hosting the event.
Alex would like to thank everyone for traveling up on Saturday; he said they had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and sincerely hoped that everyone else did too.
|
Judging
with Ron Pearce The meeting started at We had two new
members join - Sue Warrington and Paul Gover, who were both most welcome. With the birds benched (9 pairs ),
Ron started by giving a brief of the format for the evening and by asking everyone to pair
up the birds as if they were the only birds in their stud. He gave us 30 minutes to
do so, after which he would comment on the various pairings and give his ideas for
improving the birds, bearing in mind the new guide lines laid down by the BS on major
faults.
Once we had all paired up what we
thought to be the best pairings to breed from, we stopped for a tea break and general
chat. Ron then started to give various
comments regarding the quality of the birds benched and the faults and good features that
were in front of him. With that out of the way Ron
collected the pairing sheets from individual breeders and asked them to come up and
explain the pairings they had chosen. We had breeders from top champions like
Malcolm Freemantle / Ricky Watts to beginners like Paul Gover and Sue Warrington.
Ron gave advice to each individual on their pairings and suggested another bird as an
alternative to help breed better youngsters, in his opinion, or to balance the faults in
the pair. A general discussion on various birds continued with Ron giving explanations on his view of pairings and why, assuming that this was his stud and all he had to work with! There were all sorts of birds there, from buffs to yellow feathered and flecked with Pieds and YF spangles.
Ron went on to talk in general
about the modern birds of today and asked if we were going too far with the quest to cover
the face with feather. That is not to say that some feathering around the face is
desirable and makes the bird look neat and not beaky. He said the other problem with
trying to increase the feather was the tailless wonders and the cysts that occurred on the
wing butts and tails. He admitted he had the odd super bird in his stud but had
decided not to use them as it would only spread that factor into the rest of his stud - a
balance had to be maintained in the pairings of the buff feature for the stud to survive. After the judging, which was based
on Ron’s best pair of the evening, rosettes were awarded for the best cock & hen. With that we all thanked Ron in the
usual way for his professional commentary and the advice / banter given to us all and for
not taking any expenses on the night. We then had the raffle and all were wished a safe
journey home. (Bio security was maintained) |
Aviary Visit to Ron Payne, Swindon - July 2012
|
Neil Forbes Avian Vet - June 2012 The meeting was called to order at
Graham then introduced “Neil
Forbes - Avian Vet”, our guest speaker for the evening. Neil started by
explaining that he had had 25 years experience as a pioneer of avian medicine, as well as
working with a wide range of exotic animals, and had written and published various books
and articles on avian medicine. He had also given lectures to international
conferences on this subject in many parts of the world and was currently the President of
the Neil has received the following
awards: MSD AgVet Trophy and Award, Centenary Award, Mackellar Award, BSAVA Melton Award, He went on to explain many of his
exploits over the years, home and abroad, which were very interesting. I have itemised
below the main subjects he discussed on his power point presentation! Infectious Conditions: a patient may have an infectious condition, without it
being a disease. Such a condition only becomes a ‘disease’ if the patient
suffers as a consequence of the infection and this is not always the case. The fact that a
patient has an infection does not mean it is contagious, i.e. it is only contagious, if
the patient has the ability to pass on the infectious agent. Any avian patient should be considered infectious until proven otherwise. There are simply too many serious infectious diseases, which may be clinical
or sub-clinical, for any case to be automatically considered safe, until proven to be so.
We can consider diseases such as Avian influenza, Chlamydopila, Psittacine Beak and
Feather Disease and the Herpes virus, all of which can be present in an avian patient,
without any overt signs and yet still present serious risks of ‘infection’ to
other birds, either by direct contact, fomite spread or, most serious of all, by air
spread. Why does it matter if it is infectious?: not only is it essential to
determine if it is infectious and, if so, what the pathogen is, in order to ensure the
patient gets the very best treatment as soon as possible, but perhaps even more important
is the need to protect other patients and the biosecurity status of your facilities
against contamination. How do we recognise if a bird is suffering from an infectious condition?: all
clinicians are familiar with the signs of a ‘sick bird’, fluffed up, loss of
condition or weight, change of appetite and water consumption, change of normal position,
perching place or stance, change in level of activity, standing on two legs rather than
one, possibly even hanging onto the bars of the cage with his beak, loss or change of
voice, respiratory stridor, tail bobbing, faecal changes, abnormal discharges (mouth eyes,
nares, ears, preen gland, cloaca), lying down more, Whilst having our tea break Neil
was busy chatting to members about various problems etc.
Genetic: feather dusters and straw feather are two genetic abnormalities
affecting budgerigars. The names are descriptive of the visual appearance of affected
birds. Feather cysts are common in certain breed lines of canaries and budgies. A genetic susceptibility is postulated. Many other psittacines suffer feather
cysts. Neil finished about 10 minutes
before our time slot was up for a questions and answer session which was mind blowing to
say the least!! Some of those facts are below! It is very important to vary the
size of your perches to avoid scaring /sores on the feet of your birds. The FM virus will stay in your bird
room/shed /loft whatever you like to call it for up to 2 years! (2 types of FM) The only way to completely get rid
of the virus is to cull all affected birds and their family. F10 is the best treatment for most
things and is not harmful in anyway. He mentions others that were not as good and
could be detrimental to your health as well as the birds. (Being diplomatic) We could have gone on for hours,
but the clock beat us. Once again, we all showed our
appreciation to the Speaker for a very entertaining and informative evening. |
Young Stock Show - May 2012 The meeting was called to order at
Our congratulations to the main winners of the evening:
We would also like to thank all
(24) of those that helped with the setting up and removal of the trestles, plus other
jobs, which makes life a lot easier. We had two more members paid up on the night and it
was also nice to see Mick Freeborn again who travelled up with Steve Bailey. Once again, we all showed our
appreciation to the Judge / Speaker for a very entertaining evening and for not taking any
expenses’. The evening then concluded after the raffle and all were wished a safe journey home. |
April 2012 - Ghalib Al-Nasser The meeting was called to order at Ghalib started by saying that the
evening’s presentation was divided into 3 parts, dealing with breeding genes of the
dominant, sex-linked and recessive genes of varieties and was called: “Specialist Varieties in Budgerigars”
The factor that controls the
production of the Clearflight is variable in its expression; hence many birds that are
produced today differ from the ideal described by the Budgerigar Society Colour Standards
produced in 1994. The ideal depicted by the
Budgerigar Society requires seven visible clear flights and clear tail with no spillage of
the mask into the body colour but exhibits produced today seldom show the correct marking.
Since his early days in the
Budgerigar fancy (early seventies), he had heard of the American mutation, the Clearbody.
The late Cein Roberts of Dr Armour predicted the appearance
of a variety with a clear body, normal wing markings and black tail and referred to it as
a Laced Yellow.
The presentation also covered the
Spangle, Yellowface, Ino, Lacewing, and slate (all sex-linked) we were going onto the
recessive genes when------------------------- we ran out of time and decided to call this
meeting Part 1 and I will arrange another time for part 2 in the near future. |
March 2012 - Steve Cox of the S&G Cox The meeting was called to order at Chris then introduced our speaker
for the evening, Steve Cox of the S&G Cox partnership, who was accompanied by Neil
Johnson from
Once again, everyone showed their
appreciation to the Speakers for a very entertaining evening. (32) |
February 2012 - Mick Freeborn
He mentioned the various studs he has
bought over the years and the influence that bringing in different types of feather and
deportment has had on his stud, which he has used to enhance his own bloodlines and
produce the quality stud of birds he now has. He
said using the Lutolf birds has changed his style of bird, with a longer feather and a
much bigger bird overall.
|
A.G.M. January 2012
Northdowns Minutes of
AGM 2011 These had been sent to all members before the meeting and there were no comments: (Minutes as true account of AGM 2011: Proposed by Jim Lawrie – Seconded by Alex Whitman) The President’s Report The President, Malcolm Freemantle, started by saying a thank you to everyone connected to the club for the work they did and apologised if he had forgotten anyone. He said that both Chris and Tony had put in a tremendous amount of work over the year to ensure that Northdowns remained one of the best clubs in the south and that there had been some great meetings with entertaining speakers. He also mentioned that the programme for this year was looking good as well.
General and Membership Secretary’s report: Tony Cash started by thanking the committee for all their work during the year, which had contributed to the success of the club. He said the club had picked up 5 new members during the year and now had 59 members (which included life and other free memberships). All of the meetings had been well attended during the year because of the quality of the program / speakers and he hoped this would continue during 2012 and beyond. He confirmed that the hall was booked for the year
2012 (and 2013 provisionally) on the last Friday of each month, with the exception of
September which is on the 21st as this was pre-booked before the BS changed their date
back to November for the Club Show. Also, the October meeting, being the Members
show, would be held on Saturday 20th October from Barbara Davis went through the profit and loss/balance sheet reports that had been sent/given out to members. Barbara said that, compared to 2010, the income had gone up slightly and the expenditure had also gone up, but we still made a profit. (Accounts Proposed by Graham Cornwall – Seconded by Richard Hutchins) Election of Officers: John Gorrell took over the chair for the election of Chairperson. Thank you for all of your support. The AGM finished at 8.40 and we then had a tea break ready for part 2, which was on breeding problems. This threw up all the usual problems we all have year on year. |
